OFFICIAL: After winning against the Suns in the 7⁄8 matchup, the Portland Trail Blazers 1st round pick owed to the Chicago Bulls will finally convey after 5 years since the initial trade.
The ghost of Neil Olshey will no longer haunt the Blazers as their 2026 will officially convey to Chicago as it falls outside of the Top 14 protection that was slapped on to it.
For a quick refresher, the Blazers traded a lottery-protected 1st for Larry Nance Jr. way back in 2021 as part of a 3-team deal where the Cavaliers got Lauri Markkanen and the Bulls got a 2022 first from Portland. This pick had lottery protections that would have extended for up to SEVEN YEARS; it would have turned into 2 seconds in 2028 had the Blazers not made the playoffs by then.
Since this trade went down, the Blazers have missed the postseason every year and the protections on this pick, while allowing them to acquire some intriguing talent like Donovan Clingan and Scoot Henderson, severely inhibited their ability to build around Dame pre-rebuild due to how long the protections on the 1st rounder extend. To this day, the Trail Blazers ability to move future firsts was restricted (They could only trade a Portland pick as far out as 2030) though they were able to work around that with the additional picks acquired by trading Damian Lillard to the Bucks & Jrue Holiday to the Celtics i.e. acquiring war crime apologist Deni via a “2nd best/worst of the Blazers three 2029 1sts”.
The Suns, meanwhile, are looking to avoid giving up a potential lottery pick to the Grizzlies (It’s complicated) as they await to see who they’ll face off in the “Winner of the 9⁄10 Play-In Tournament”